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Up to 150 migrants die in shipwreck off the coast of Libya

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A single overloaded boat off Libya just became 2019’s deadliest Mediterranean crossing.

On Thursday, July 25, roughly 300 Europe-bound migrants set out from the Libyan port city of Al-Khums, about 80 miles east of Tripoli, packed onto one or two vessels that were never built for open water. The boat, or boats, ran into trouble almost immediately and capsized, and by the time rescuers reached the scene, up to 150 people were dead or missing. UNHCR called it the worst Mediterranean shipwreck of the year, and the numbers back that up.

• Up to 150 migrants died or went missing after their boat capsized off Al-Khums, Libya, on July 25, 2019.
• Local fishermen, later joined by the Libyan Coast Guard, pulled between 137 and 147 survivors from the water; only one body was recovered.
• UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi called it “the worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year,” with the 2019 Mediterranean death toll now topping 600.

The Crossing That Went Wrong

Al-Khums has become one of the main departure points for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea, and Thursday’s crossing followed the familiar pattern: too many people, an unseaworthy vessel, no formal rescue plan waiting on the other side. Roughly 300 migrants boarded the boat or boats before they ever cleared the coast, and the vessel overturned soon after leaving shore. There was no immediate word on how many nationalities were represented among those aboard, but the route out of Al-Khums has for years carried people fleeing conflict and poverty across sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

The Rescue And The Numbers

Libyan fishermen were first on the scene, pulling survivors out of the water before the Libyan Coast Guard arrived to take over the operation. Between 137 and 147 people were brought back to Libyan shores, where humanitarian teams treated them for injuries and exposure. Only a single body had been recovered from the water as of the initial reporting, which is what left the death toll estimate at up to 150 — the gap between those confirmed rescued and the roughly 300 believed to have departed.

A Death Toll That Keeps Climbing

UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley, who covers Africa and the Mediterranean for the agency, said the disaster pushed this year’s Mediterranean death toll above 600 and pointed to a grim ratio: one out of every six people who attempt the crossing from Libya dies at sea. Grandi didn’t soften the language when he addressed the wreck.

the worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year

Grandi used the moment to press European governments to bring back state-run search-and-rescue operations in the central Mediterranean, arguing that leaving the job to fishermen and an overstretched Libyan Coast Guard is costing lives that could be saved.

Future Destinations for Disaster Survivors

The rescued migrants were returned to Libyan shores, and that’s exactly what alarmed UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, and UNICEF. All three agencies raised the alarm about sending survivors back into Libya’s detention system, citing well-documented abuses inside the centers and a security situation in Tripoli that had already turned deadly weeks earlier when an airstrike hit the Tajoura migrant facility. Their demand was blunt: safe, legal evacuation corridors out of Libya instead of another cycle of rescue-and-return that puts people right back where they were trying to escape.

Coverage of the crisis sits alongside other ongoing international flashpoints tracked in World News, and the story continues to develop as agencies push governments for a response through Breaking News channels.

Yaxley’s math is the number to watch here — one in six who leave Libya by boat doesn’t make it across. Until European governments answer Grandi’s call to restore official search-and-rescue missions, that ratio, and the body count behind it, isn’t going to change.